PAST PRESENT

Good compilation. Excellent compilation. Fantastic compilation! And no matter what tracks from 1980s are collected here (Pastpresent covers only Clannad's second period), what's important is that there are The Hunter and World Of Difference in the track list. Two brilliant songs from late 1980s unavailable on the band's other releases. Well, more precisely, the former was released in 1989 on single, but not together with the latter, side two was occupied by a theme from Atlantic Realm, no idea why. Only a truncated instrumental edit of World Of Difference can be heard in the end of the aforesaid album Atlantic Realm (and hope no need to explain that it's not enough!), while its entire version with vocals, to my knowledge, remained unreleased until Pastpresent. So, I'm not afraid to be accounted an extravagant freak if I give this compilation four stars just for two songs, all the more that in its entirety, it introduces 1980s Clannad to the audience quite well.

Given that only one number here - the achingly magnificent Coinlech Glas an Fhómair - even references CLANNAD's 1970s period (though the version here is from 1983), it would seem that "Just Past Present" would probably be a better name for this compilation. Nonetheless, this is a reasonably well curated collection that divulges the group's embrace of prog attitudes at a time when most big P prog bands of similar vintage were either dead, moribund, or dispirited.

Apart from the obligatory and wonderful hits, "Theme from Harry's Game", "Robin the Hooded Man", and "In a Lifetime", we also hear their successful forays into Celtic Rock ("Second Nature"), pure Celtic ("Lady Marian"), pop prog ("Closer to Your Heart"), and pop balladry ("Something to Believe In"). Two rarities are included, the ambient "The Hunter" with bass lines that recall ELOY, and the even more breathy "World of Difference" in which steady contributor Mel Collins' sax nearly upstages Moira. Both straddle their waning 1980s style and the coming new age shift in the 1990s.

While the most recent album at the time, "Sirius", is overly represented by a few lesser tracks, somehow they do not lower the bar, as their breadth of styles seem oddly more effective and distinctive when interspersed with the bread and butter Clannad. Given that this was one of the group's highest charting albums, it would seem that both old and new fans agreed.

"Pastpresent" is a very worthy first stop for potential fans of the group or for new fans who want to get their feet wet but not necessarily dive right in. Be aware of its focus on a narrow swath of their history, as it ignores several excellent albums from 1973-1982 and a few very good ones from the later years.